The term “custodial management” is a term that usually gets used without people trying to put a definition on it. In its simplest concept it means that Canada would unilaterally be able to control fishing outside 200 miles for the purposes of conservation. That's essentially what it means. The international legal advice has always been that it's high seas outside 200 miles under international law. No country can have that kind of authority or jurisdiction outside 200 miles in the absence of the consent of the flag states that are being brought into this custodial management process, and that is what has held up progress so far in proceeding toward this description of custodial management.
The term “custodial management” can also mean a lot of other things, or at least lesser things than unilateral control outside 200 miles. NAFO, in negotiating this new convention, could have granted Canada custodial management even in the broad sense. They wouldn't. They could have legally done that, and then Canada would legally have custodial management outside 200 miles. The NAFO members wouldn't because of sovereign rights, sovereignty, high seas, and that kind of thing. They wouldn't do it, but they could have granted Canada something more had Canada demanded something more than we have now, something that would give Canada a greater handle on controlling fisheries.
One thing is what the UNFA convention proposes, and the EU is part of the UNFA convention. The seizure I described to you would allow Canada to bring a vessel into port and hold it and take it off the water. They could have done that. They could have been pushed to do that. They never did. Whether they were pushed, I don't know; I wasn't part of those negotiations.
NAFO could have said as well, or Canada could have said, “We have a new proposal--we now have it in this draft convention--that Canada can request NAFO to manage inside 200 miles. Why don't you put in another provision that says NAFO can request Canada to do this, that, and that outside 200 miles? You'd have to request it. You couldn't do it unilaterally, but if we could get you to agree to it, that would give us this kind of handle outside 200 miles.” No. What happened was NAFO got a form of custodial management inside 200 miles through this provision that says Canada can request it and we can do it. Canada got nothing outside 200 miles.